Pedal mechanism for keyboard instruments

ABSTRACT

Each muffler (6) is individually subjected to a separable pair of sollicitation means (9, 10) of which one of them (10) depends on the harmonic bar (11) and of which the other one (9) depends from the muffler (6); also provided is a so-called harmonic pedal which actuates the harmonic bar (11) in order to space apart the assembly of mufflers (6) from the set of strings (7), the simultaneous depression of the harmonic pedal and of a key (1) causing the separation of the pair of sollicitation means (9, 10) with respect to the muffler (6) of the string (7) corresponding to said key (1).

The present invention relates to a novel musical method for keyboard andstruck string instruments or similar instruments, as well as a pedalmechanism adapted to this new method.

By similar instruments is meant for example electronic instrumentssimulating the sound of traditional string instruments.

With existing instruments, the musician has the choice between:

playing "staccato" in which case the emission of each note ceases assoon as the finger releases the key,

playing with the loud pedal pressed down, in which case each note playedcontinues to resonate after the finger has released the key,

playing with use of the tonal pedal, when it exists, in which case, thestruck chord may be "stored" if this tonal pedal is pressed, andresonate at the same time as the detached notes then played.

The possibilities of the loud pedal and of the tonal pedal are howeverlimited. As has just been said, the tonal pedal can only store onechord. The limits of the loud pedal are clear from the musical examplesgiven hereafter with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In FIG. 1, it can be seen that each minim of the base corresponds to anarpeggio. All the notes form part of the harmony; if the loud pedal isused as shown by the letter P, no dissonance results therefrom.

On the other hand, referring to FIG. 2 it can be seen that there is achord at each bar, but the grace notes indicated by createinsurmountable discords if the loud pedal is actuated. To avoid suchdiscords, there are two possible solutions, either playing without theloud pedal, or actuating the loud pedal eight times per bar, which wouldgive a poor result.

The purpose of the present invention is to offer new possibilities ofplaying and writing.

This objective is reached in that, in accordance with the invention, theeffect of the loud pedal with respect to notes about to be played isinterrupted while keeping this effect with respect to notes which havejust been played.

In the case of electronic instruments, the means used for putting thismethod into practice may be in the form of a memory whose practicalconstruction is within the scope of a man skilled in the art basinghimself on what is known from the tonal pedal point of view.

In the case of traditional instruments, the practical solution ismechanical.

These traditional instruments comprise a set of strings each capable ofbeing struck by a hammer actuated by a key, each string being equippedwith a muffler which, in an unsollicited position, bears against thestring and prevents it from vibrating and which, in the sollicitedposition, is moved away from the string, the sollicitation of themufflers being either global under the effect of a common bar, calledloud bar, actuated by a loud pedal, or individual under the effect of aspoon controlled by each key.

With such instruments, the musician has the possibility:

either of causing the string corresponding to the pressed key tovibrate, the muffler of said string moving away therefrom so as to letit vibrate as long as the finger presses the key and coming back intoposition as soon as the key is released, whereas all the other stringsare prevented from vibrating by their respective mufflers,

or, by pressing the loud pedal, of allowing not only the stringcorresponding to the pressed key to vibrate, which vibration continuesafter the finger has released the key, but also that of the base stringswhich vibrate in sympathy with the string corresponding to the pressedkey.

According to the invention, each muffler is individually subjected to aseparable pair of sollicitation means one of which depends from aharmonic bar and the other of which depends from the muffler and a socalled harmonic pedal is provided which actuates the harmonic bar inorder to move the assembly of mufflers away from the set of strings, thesimultaneous depression of the harmonic pedal and of a key causing theseparation of the pair of sollicitation means with respect to themuffler of the string corresponding to this key.

Thus, when the harmonic pedal is actuated, the string corresponding to akey only vibrates while this key is pressed, the muffler muffling thenote played while letting the harmonics of the base string sound whichare generated by sympathy. That makes it possible to play a completephrase of the same harmony, with the harmonic pedal pressed, withoutraising the pedal at each grace note, while respecting the musicalarticulations.

That is clear from FIG. 3 where the notes indicated are grace notes orpassage notes which do not form part of the three or four notes formingthe chord. Just after the emission, they are stifled by the muffler andthe residual harmonic is insignificant. The use of the harmonic pedal inthis extract will not prevent the base from being played staccato.

In existing pianos, each muffler is carried by a muffler support.

In a practical embodiment of the invention, the harmonic bar is mountedfor rotation about its longitudinal axis and each pair of sollicitationmeans comprises a projecting escape nut at the periphery of the harmonicbar and able to come into and out of engagement with an escape springdepending from the muffler support, the harmonic pedal causing throughthe harmonic bar, said nuts and said springs, the overall sollicitationof the muffler support whereas the individual sollicitation of eachmuffler support by the corresponding spoon under the effect of thedepression of a key causes, when the harmonic pedal is depressed, theseparation between the nut and the spring of the muffler supportcorresponding to said key, without subsequent release of this keycausing re-engagement of said nut and said spring.

Although the harmonic pedal may be a pedal added to the existing set onpianos (loud pedal, soft pedal, tonal pedal), it is quite preferable forthe loud pedal and the harmonic pedal to form one and only one harmonicpedal able to be depressed half way or totally depressed, thesemi-depression of the pedal corresponding to the harmonic position, inwhich the muffler supports remain accessible to the spoons when the keysare actuated, whereas complete depression of the pedal corresponds tothe loud pedal position, in which said loud bar prevents the mufflersupports from returning towards the strings.

It will then be understood that in the harmonic pedal positionseparation of the sollicitation means of each muffler will be obtainedafter depression of the corresponding key and so muffling of the noteplayed, whereas in the loud pedal position, the mufflers remainseparated from the strings even after the corresponding keys have beendepressed.

The combined pedal is movable from its loud pedal depressed positiontowards its harmonic pedal semi-depressed position: in this case, allthe notes played in the loud position remain resonating at the time ofpassing over to the harmonic position, thus creating a tonal pedaleffect, with however an advantage over known pedals: whereas theselatter can only "memorize" the keys pressed at the time of the action,the tonal function of the invention makes it possible to keep a wholearpeggio, a whole series of two, three or five chords resonating.

The invention will be better understood from reading the followingdescription with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are music staffs showing graphically the effect ofpedal operation.

FIG. 4 shows schematically the configuration of the mechanism of theinvention at rest, applied to an upright piano,

FIG. 5 shows the same configuration as in FIG. 4 but with the combinedpedal pressed to the harmonic position without depression of the key,

FIG. 6 shows the same configuration as in FIG. 5 but with depression ofthe key,

FIG. 7 shows the phase following that illustrated in FIG. 6, when thekey is released,

FIG. 8 shows the same configuration as in FIG. 5 but with the combinedpedal pressed to the loud position, without depression of the key.

Referring to FIG. 4, a piano key 1 can be seen actuating through anappropriate mechanism 2 a spoon 3 able to engage a muffler support 4mounted for pivoting about a pin 5. Then muffler support 4 is providedwith a muffler 6 which is shown in contact with the string 7. Themuffler support is joined by a collar 8 to one of the ends of a bar 13whose other end carries an escape spring 9. The escape spring 9 isadapted for cooperating with an escape nut 10 mounted at the peripheryof an "harmonic bar" 11 capable of rotating, in one direction and in theother, about its longitudinal axis. A "loud bar" 12 is further providedcapable of moving to and from the muffler support 4. A combined pedal,not shown, having a midway depressed position called "semi-depressed"position and a totally depressed position called "depressed" position,is adapted for actuating the harmonic bar 11 in the semi-depressedposition and the loud bar 12 in the depressed position.

Referring to FIG. 5 it can be seen that following the semi-depression ofthe pedal (harmonic position), the harmonic bar 11 has rotated throughan angle α in the direction of arrow F1 bringing the escape nut 10 incontact with the escape spring 9 which it deforms downwardly. Thislatter has then undergone a thrust which it has transmitted to bar 13and to the muffler support 4 which has pivoted about its pin 5. Themuffler 6 has therefore moved away from string 7.

Referring to FIG. 6 where key 1 is depressed whereas the mechanism wassuch as shown in FIG. 5, spoon 3 comes to bear on the muffler support 4and causes it to pivot further about its pin 5 to the extent that theescape spring 9 moves away from the escape nut 10 and resumes, in thedirection F2, its rest position.

It will be understood that, as soon as key 1 is released (FIG. 7), spoon3 will no longer maintain the muffler support in the position shown inFIG. 6 and the muffler 6 will come back into contact again againststring 7 while preventing it from vibrating. The return of the mufflerto the rest position causes the escape spring 9 to pass over the escapenut 10. It is clear that only spoon 3 corresponding to the key 1actuated has caused the spring to pass above the nut. The other spoons3a, 3b, 3c . . . have remained in the position of spoon 3 in FIG. 5 and,consequently, springs 9a, 9B, 9c . . . have remained in contact with thenuts 10a, 10b, 10c . . . so that the mufflers 6a, 6b, 6c . . . haveremained separated from the strings 7a, 7b, 7c . . . even after key 1has been released. The elements identified by the letters a, b, c havenot been shown in the drawings, they have simply been mentioned for thesake of understanding.

Referring now to FIG. 8, it can be seen that, under the effect of thetotal depression of the pedal (loud position), bar 12 has moved in thedirection of arrow F3 towards the muffler support 4 and it has caused itto pivot further. Simultaneously, the total depression of the pedal hascaused the harmonic bar to rotate in the direction of arrow F4. In theloud position, if key 1 is pressed and released, muffler 6 remains awayfrom string 7.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the embodiments described andshown, and in particular, although reference was made above to anupright piano, it is obviously transposable to grand pianos.

The musical applications are very important and varied:

contrapuntal music: the harmonic pedal will impassion discussionsrelative to style and interpretation,

romantic music: it makes possible the addition of an extra sound plane,namely the articulated play of the harmonic function above the resonanceeffects of the loud pedal,

piano transcriptions of older works: the transcriptions of organ worksfor piano will be rediscovered with a new interest,

opening of a different way, new prospects of writing for the piano.

It will be understood that the invention is applicable to existinginstruments: for this the original loud bar is connected to the harmonicbar provided in the structure of the invention, and the original loudpedal is replaced by the combined pedal of the invention.

I claim:
 1. In the stringed instrument device such as a piano having aset of strings, a corresponding set of hammers for vibrating thestrings, an equal number of mufflers for damping vibration of individualstrings and pivotal muffler support means individual to each muffler,the improvement comprising:a first bar means cooperating with each saidmuffler support means and making a driving connection therewith forpivoting all aid support means through a first angle to move allmufflers in unison from an unsolicited position to a solicited position,key means individual to each muffler support means operable to contactand rotate the muffler support means individual to the key means, saidkey means being further operable to break said driving connectionbetween said first bar means and the muffler support means individual tosaid key means whereby the support means individual to said key means isfree to return to said unsolicited position while the balance of saidmuffler support means and their mufflers remain in the solicitedposition.
 2. The device of claim 1 in which the first bar means includesa radial projection defining an escape nut and the muffler support meansincludes an extension supporting a spring means, said first bar meansbeing rotatable whereby said driving connection is completed byinterference between said radial projection and said spring means. 3.The device of claim 1 including a second bar means cooperating with eachsaid muffler support means for pivoting all said muffler support meansin unison through a second angle greater than said first angle to moveall mufflers from an unsolicited position to a solicited positionwhereby said muffler support means are positioned free of manipulationby said key means.
 4. The device of claim 3 in which the first andsecond bar means are pedal actuated.
 5. The device of claim 4 in whichthe first and second bar means are actuated by a single pedal.